The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1887-03-24


bled the English landed interest; but
now planting is essentially commercial
speculation. The cash for hands, month
by month, successful or not, must be
paid in full, with no crop, and nothing
to pay with, there being no reserved
capital This brings things to halt at
once. One who cannot control capital
on q legitimate basis had as well under
take to work mine, or run factory or
line of ocean steamers on q twelve
months credit, as to plant successfully.
a merchant with little or no capital, but
good business reputation, can get
goods on such time as enables him to
carry on business with sales to meet his
credits. He is part of o system of
credits, and does legitimate business
with it. There is no legitimate system
of credit in planting. The length of
time before he can realize and the un-
certainty attending all its operations
and results, put the planter out of the
pale OF commercial credit, which means
getting money upon the same terms as
other men doing business with him.
Unless he does that, the rest goes for
nothing. Farmers may meet and re-
solve, and all the rest-may go to the
Legislature, and, if you choose, "make
Rome how'll" but unless that difficulty
is removed they are out Of the ring.
"Paul .hay plant, and Apollus may
WATER" but there is no increase at 2 per
cent. month.
The tariff and State taxation have in a
sense nothing to do with this desperate
condition of things. AS our old friend
Don Quixotte used to say to his trusty
squire: t'These are but tarts and cheese
n fr1n1 oh 10 hat
over yonder;" and our giant is no wind
mill either.
Fair priced money would even now
come too late to the most who have been
planting cotton since the war; Like the
succor sent to the furnishing Irish in
lS4S, many were too far gone, though
still alive and conscious, to be helped by
1T; and the most terrible duty imposed
upon tho commissioners who distributed
the provisions, was to pass by those
whose features indicated so hopeless n
condition that it did not warrant giving
them, though craving for it, that relief
which would save others not so far gone.
80, again, we say the thing has gone
on long enough, and gone SO far that,
really, the best for the country at large
would be for the capitalists who over
shadow the land with this, in the aggre-
gate, enormous debt to pass some sort
OF an "lrish encumbered estate bill, |
realize, take possession of all estates, "
so pcrpetually burdened, and put them
fairly atiOat with the means they and no
one else have, and so take a burden from
the shoulders of that unfortunate class
OF men who undertake to plant cotton
on Iens-and then what is going to
happen will happen, and what that is
would not, we will confess, be difficult
to say. Cotton will be made, no fear.
The middle and upper country of South
Carolina is as good region to make it
IN as any IN the cotton belt. take it all
round. The labor is now we'll in hand
and only requires the knowledge of the
treedman's ways and requirements, with
the money to meet them, and expert
ence has taught this to the men who
have been dealing with them of late
years to do good work. This middle
and upper country of South Carolina
has the climate, soil and wealth, lying
under the shelter of the Blue Ridge on
the North and West, with the warm cur
rent of the Gulf Stream bathing its
Eastern shore, it is a veritable garden
for those who are able to avail them
selves OF its advantages, but not upon
the system now pursued. That is |
doomed, and no hand can save it. The
sooner it goes the better Clear the
wreck and let the strongest hold the
ground. Out of "chaos" comes "cos- !
mas" Bad as the best may be, nothing
is worse than holding on. The dry rot
pcrmeates the whole system, and can
have but one ending. The Dutch, when
they had the monopoly of the East
India trade, burned the surplusage of
then spices to keep the market at a pay
ing standard. Let those who are able
to plant cotton legitimately do SO. Let
them take example from the Dutch Ga
wise people, reduce the cotton crop and
handle more money from the small crop
than the large one, to say nothing of in
cidental benefits coming from cultivating
provisions. Make half crop of cotton
one year, and it will give healthy tone
to the market for an indefinite period.
WATERRE.
Camden, S. G..